Design Ideas: Great Design Documentaries

An online journal about visual art, the urban landscape and design. Mary Louise Schumacher, the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic, leads the discussion and a community of writers contribute to the dialogue.

For this week’s Design Ideas, you’re reaping the benefit of a recent sick day. The cure for my cold was sleep, lots of liquids and plenty of Internet scavenging.

I happened to ask myself: What are the best documentaries about design?Here are a few that make my list. Some you’ll have heard of, others I dug out of the recesses of the Internet, my DVD closet and the minds of design-interested chums who were also online. Most are readily available at Netflix and elsewhere.

“Why Man Creates”: This little documentary with animations from Saul Bass is as hilarious as it is profound. Trust me, you’ve never seen the history of creativity told so creatively. From the invention of the lever to the discovery of the roundness of the Earth, with a cute little exchange between Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci along the way, this short from 1968 is a gem. You can find it on YouTube.

“Urbanized”: Cities represent the collection of conscious and unconscious choices we make about how human beings should live on the Earth. This, the third documentary in Gary Hustwit’s trilogy, confronts us with a vision of the world in the process of disruptive and rapid urbanization. It hints at how hard urban design can be and leaves lingering the voices of designers, urban planners, architects and artists that represent solutions to fantastic problems.

“Charles & Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter” and “House”: Some would say this power couple, known mostly for their modernist furniture, changed the face of the 20th century. The first doc, narrated by James Franco and available at PBS.org, is a portrait of an artistic marriage, of a couple who saw no distinction between art, architecture and design. The latter is evidence of this, a film by the Eameses and an a intimate view inside the couple’s living space in their Case Study House in California. You can find this on YouTube.

“Helvetica”: Yes, this is a feature-length film about a typeface that designers either love or loathe. As Patrick Castro, one of the area designers who recommended this doc will attest, it “makes designers look like geeks.” Indeed the documentary does, but smart, interesting and highly necessary geeks. This 2007 documentary has single-handedly created dialogue about type. Do see it if you haven’t.

“The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces”: This 30-year-old film by urbanist and journalist William H. Whyte is a reminder that placemaking, the buzz word of the moment, is far from new. The short documentary looks at what it is that attracts — and repels — people from public spaces. I was especially interested to see how art and performance, in the right place, can take a group of strangers and turn them into a community in about a minute.

About Mary Louise Schumacher

Mary Louise Schumacher is the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic. She writes about culture, design, the urban landscape and Milwaukee's creative community. Art City is her award-winning cultural page and a community of more than 20 contributing writers and artists. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

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Keep up with the art scene and trends in urban design with art and architecture critic Mary Louise Schumacher. Every week, you'll get the latest reviews, musings on architecture and her picks for what to do on the weekends.